Florence contains an exceptional artistic patrimony, glorious testimony to its secular civilization. Cimabue and Giotto, the fathers of Italian painting, lived here, along with Arnolfo and Andrea Pisano, reformists of architecture and sculpture, Brunelleschi, Donatello and Masaccio, founders of the Renaissance, Della Robbia and Ghiberti, Fra Angelico and Filippo Lippi; Botticelli and Uccello, the universal genius Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo. Their work, as well as those of many generations of artists up to the masters of this century, are in museums.

In Florence, thanks to Dante, was born on the Italian language is affirmed literary studies with Petrarca and Boccaccio; revived the ideals of humanism and the philosophy and values of classical civilization, with Machiavelli modern political science was born, with Guicciardini, historical prose, and with Galileo, modern experimental science.

Since the days of Charlemagne, Florence was a university town. Today it includes many specialized institutes and is an international cultural center. Academies, art schools, scientific institutes and cultural centers all contribute to the busy city.